First bad experience with Annie's Annuals

8 years ago

I've had nothing but great things to say about Annie's Annuals, but something that happened recently has soured me a tiny bit.

Among many other plants I ordered from them this spring were three Cobaea scandens, Cup and Saucer Vine, plants. One was a bit on the limp side upon arrival, but there was nothing alarming about it; I'm a very experienced gardener, and I assumed I would be able to get it to bounce back. I planted all three, along with everything else, and waited.

Within a few weeks two of the Cup and Saucer plants were dying, and the third wasn't looking good. All other plants in the same soil/light/water were thriving. I did all I could to get them to rebound, but they didn't; they all died.

I contacted Annie's to see about getting replacements. I have to point out here that I've only been buying from Annie's since 2013 (I think!). I had read rave reviews about them online, so all along I guess I assumed that their guarantee would be like Bluestone's. I've been ordering from Bluestone Perennials for so long, more than 20 years, that it predates their web site! In those 20+ years I can only recall two times that I made use of their guarantee--which is an unconditional, 100% satisfaction guarantee, no time limit. So twice in 20+ years--it's not like I abuse it.

Well, I didn't read Annie's guarantee, http://www.anniesannuals.com/mailorder-info :

"We will gladly issue a store credit or refund for the original purchase
price of plants if they arrive damaged or fail to thrive within 30 days
of receipt. Please report damaged plants and merchandise within 48 hours
of receipt."

By the time I contacted Annie's, it was WELL PAST the 30 days. The person I spoke to told me about the 30 day thing, and offered to replace the plants if I paid their shipping, and I agreed.

The replacements arrived a few days later, and I put them in the ground...and all but one died! In other words, for this one variety of plant, I ended up losing 5 out of 6--a new record for me! I cannot recall EVER having so many of one plant die like that. I don't have any idea why they died; there was nothing remarkable about their demise, they just started turning brown at their base and that spread until encompassing the entire plant.

The ONE plant that survived is doing GREAT! Its vines are about 3' long now, happily climbing up a fence.

So I'm somewhat disappointed for two reasons, 1) their very limited guarantee, which doesn't allow sufficient time to see if a plant is going to thrive, and, 2) that 5 out of 6 of one plant variety died. I'll still order from them, but perhaps less enthusiastically. I think I'll return to using Bluestone as my primary source.

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First bad experience with Annie's Annuals

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